Two Races Completed

Laser Radial World Championships

The overnight storms, producing the first rain for 6 months, took a while to disperse and caused a delay in the start of the first race of the Laser Radial World Championships, Vilanova, Sapin.

When the 285 Laser Radials from 37 countries finally took to the water they were greeted with an onshore, shifting breeze, of 7 to 10 knots. The male fleet of 230 boats is split into 8 groups which make 4 starts in each race whilst the 55 female sailors sail a separate series. After each race the groups cross over to provide a mix of sailors. At the end of each day the total fleet is re-seeded into new groups for the next days racing.

In the women's fleet defending champion, Katarzyna Szotynski from Poland, carried on where she left on in Turkey last year. After an indifferent start she recovered to seventh in the first race and then took the winning gun in the stronger winds of the second race to give her a 1 point lead over last years bronze medallist, Jayne Singleton, from Great Britain. Singleton virtually mirrored Szotynski's results in reverse, starting with a bullet but then dropping to eigth in the second race. She said "in the first race I had a reasonable start and took the shifts up the middle but in the second race I was caught at the starboard end of the line when the wind went left. I think I will start middle line in future."

With 4 first places, 4 second places etc available for each race the front of the male fleet is a lot closer with 4 boats all on equal points. Defending champion, Frederik Lassenius from Denmark is well placed only 3 points behind the leading 4 from Croatia, Greece and Turkey. 7th placed Matias Del Solar from Chile was in the same group as joint leader Andreas Rallotas from Greece. Del Solar said "it was great sailing, just like I am training on back in Chile. In my fleet I was second for most of the first race until the last downwind (on the Olympic trapezoid course) when Andreas got past me. I had the lead in the second race until once again Andreas passed me on the downwind. I think I am a little bit heavy!" The championship lasts for 6 days with 4 days being sailed in a modified round robin until the last two days when the fleet is split in gold, silver and bronze groups.